According to the Express, the changing face of family life in Britain was laid bare with the number of single parents having almost tripled over the past 40 years.

In 1971, 8% of households in Britain were headed by lone parent, but by 2011 that figure had reached 22%.

The popularity of marriage has fallen as the proportion of single women aged 18 to 49 who have never married has doubled, up from just 18% in 1979 to 43% in 2011. The proportion of women of the same age who live with a partner, but are not married, has tripled from just 11 per cent to 34%.

There are more female single parents than there are male single parents, surveys listed that majority came from custodial rights.